[Kuro]

Can we all agree that formic pro is not a great product? It is under the required dose to kill mites under cap. The advantage of formic acid is it CAN kill over 90% of mites under cappings but Formic Pro does not.

So, if you are going to use this product for an entire cycle of bees under cap then you do not want that large off gassing when first introduced to the hive. If you do want that then I suggest going off label and using formic acid in a flash treatment. If you are wanting to kill the mites as they emerge from cap then you want the product to be stable for the duration to do so. Full pad exposure is heavy off gassing for first few days then less and less gassing over the 12 day period of mites under cap opposed to a steady release that kills the mites the full duration. You should read Randy's study of this "off label" application with foil on one side and make your own determination.

Formic Pro is useful for me in August, since I usually keep a honey super on until late September to collect knotweed honey. It’s also much easier than doing a round of OAV. It may not be perfect, but it’s handy and buys me some time. That said, if I had a lot of hives, I would probably use formic acid flash treatments instead, since they’re much cheaper.

 

[Kuro]

I do not recall this as being the recommended application method for FormicPro, nor for the companies' predecessor formic product. None of the instruction pamphlets which come in the package describe this method but I haven't keep them all and none are dated.

Oh sorry I made a mistake. Yes you are right, for recommended method, I did (honey super, deep, 2 pads, deep, bottom board with the entrance fully open).

 

[Kuro]

Using formic has never been a problem for me, probably because summers in the Pacific Northwest are relatively cool and very dry. Yes, counting mites is a hassle, so I may only tally 1/3 or 1/4 of the board, or just take photos and review them later if something seems off. The two examples I shared are rare cases where I did an almost complete count throughout the Formic Pro treatment.

 

[Kuro]

This year, I placed two pads on top of the two deeps (honey super, two Formic Pro pads, deep, deep, bottom board with the entrance fully open). In 2020, I followed the recommended placement (honey super, pad #1, deep, pad #2, deep, bottom board with the entrance fully open). In neither case did I see many dead bees around the entrance. However, in terms of effectiveness, the recommended method performed better.

The following tables show actual mite drop counts during 24 hours, unless otherwise noted. Pre-treatment natural mite drops were similar in both years. However, the total number of mites dropped during the two-week period was at least 3,506 with the recommended method, compared to 1,288 with the two-pads-on-two-deeps method. Post-treatment natural mite drops were also lower with the recommended method.

2020 Data (recommended method)

Date	Days after treatment	24 hr mite drop (unless noted)	Note
8/17/2020	-3	23
8/18/2020	-2	25
8/19/2020	-1	30
8/20/2020	0	32	Formic Pro: one pad on the deeps, one between deeps
8/21/2020	1	48	12 hr count
8/22/2020	2	673
8/23/2020	3	365
8/24/2020	4	324
8/25/2020	5	379
8/26/2020	6	361
8/27/2020	7	332
8/28/2020	8	313
8/29/2020	9	280
8/31/2020	11	340	48 hr count
9/2/2020	13	not done	Mite board cleaned but not counted
9/3/2020	14	91
9/6/2020	17	61	72 hr count, pads removed
9/7/2020	18	41
9/8/2020	19	6
9/9/2020	20	9
9/10/2020	21	8
9/11/2020	22	8
9/12/2020	23	7

2025 data (two-pads-on-two-deeps)

Date	Days after treatment	24 hr mite drop (unless noted)	Note
8/26/2025	-3	29
8/27/2025	-2	30
8/28/2025	-1	30
8/29/2025	0	45	Formic Pro on the two deeps, at 6:00 PM
8/30/2025	1	99	12 hr count
8/31/2025	2	178
9/1/2025	3	128
9/2/2025	4	81
9/3/2025	5	85
9/4/2025	6	88
9/5/2025	7	100
9/6/2025	8	70
9/7/2025	9	84
9/8/2025	10	79
9/9/2025	11	88
9/10/2025	12	88
9/11/2025	13	85
9/12/2025	14	35
9/14/2025	16	42	48 hr count, pads removed
9/15/2025	17	15
9/17/2025	19	19
9/18/2025	20	11